From automotive technology vehicles are known, which are equipped with arm rests at the seat or at the seat bench, i.e. at the front seats and/or at the back seats. As a general rule, arm rests arranged in the center between seats are swivelably mounted in a swivel bearing with the aid of a bearing shaft and can be swiveled between a swiveled-up rest position and a swiveled-down support position. The swiveled-down support position makes it possible for the user to prop his/her arms upon the arm rest. When utilized as a center arm rest for front seats of a vehicle, the swiveled-up rest position serves for providing the driver with access to the center brackets disposed underneath the arm rest. When utilized as a center arm rest at a back seat bench, the swiveled-up rest position at the same time serves as the utilization position for a back rest and thus forms a part of the back rest.
Generic arm rests include definite arm rest positions both in the swiveled-up rest position and in the swiveled-down support position. This is simply realized by arranging at an arm rest body, respectively a support element, a fixedly arranged rotational axis, respectively a bearing shaft, which in turn is fastened to a bracket in a specific position, wherein the bracket is firmly connected to the seat. In this way, swiveling of the support element about the rotational axis is easily possible. In this context, from the state of the art specific embodiments for connecting the bearing shaft and the equally necessary stop are known. As a general rule, the bearing shaft is formed from a cylindrical body that correspondingly penetrates the bracket. Due to the confined space available, the stop required for limiting the movement in the support position as a general rule is attached to a lateral side of the arm rest and is arranged in parallel to the rotational axis. The stop, which for this purpose is guided in a guiding groove, correspondingly limits the movement between the rest position and the support position.
It is apparent that the known state-of-the-art arm rests are required to feature a special structure for each type of cushioning in terms of the support element, the mounting and the bracket. In this regard, it is necessary to design the state-of-the-art arm rests specific to each vehicle type in the embodiment which matches the type of cushioning assigned to the vehicle seat position. Similarly, it may occur that identical seat cushions and back rests are utilized for different vehicle types, however, due to the position of the seat in the vehicle, the arm rests disposed in the side coverings are required to be designed differently. In this regard, however, it is desirable that the center arm rest in the support position is also situated at the same height as the side arm rest.
The generally required common part strategy pursues the aim of achieving a cost reduction by means of utilizing common parts, i.e. higher piece numbers. In the light of the aspect that in particular the support element makes up a significant share of expenses and thus gives rise to increased costs owing to the production which is adapted to each individual type of seat, it is envisaged to configure in particular the support element as a common part.